When the makers of one the most potent energy drinks available decided in 2010 that some batches of Spike and Spike Shooter should be removed from the market, it hired a West Bend company to recycle more than 13,000 cases.

But according to a new lawsuit, the drinks not only weren’t destroyed, they wound up for sale on eBay and possibly other places, even after Colorado-based Spike LLC had paid an extra $10,000 to a Brookfield man to expedite the products’ proper disposal.

The lawsuit, filed in Waukesha County Circuit Court, names Nationwide Recycling, of West Bend, and John McCardle, of Brookfield, as defendants and seeks damages for conspiracy, breach of contract, negligence, misrepresentation and conversion.

According to the complaint, the drinks were worth $900,000 if sold by Spike, which “out of concern for its customers and its own business reputation . .. monitors its own products to endure it sells only products fit for sale.”

The company’s Milwaukee attorney, Paul Hoefle, said Spike had changed the drinks to a newer, better formulation and didn’t want the old version on the market anymore The complaint says it contracted with National Environmental Solutions to “safely and ethically dispose” of the unwanted drinks for $6,000. Spike then delivered the product to West Bend in early April 2010.

By the end of August, however, National Environmental Solutions had stopped operating and McCardle began operating Nationwide Recycling at the same address in September, according to the lawsuit. When Spike learned later that month that its drinks were still around, McCardle told company officials he was just the landlord but could get another company to recycle the energy drinks for $10,000, which Spike wired to him.

In November, McCardle represented to Spike that the drinks had been removed and destroyed, the suit claims, when in fact he was conspiring with the former operator of National Environmental, Dean Schwichtenberg, to sell them through unauthorized channels.

Spike didn’t learn that its drinks were being sold until January 2011, but when the company called McCardle he denied he knew where Schwichtenberg was or how to reach him and once again certified that drinks had been taken to a different recycling company and destroyed, the complaint claims.

Spike contends its withdrawn drinks were being sold as late as April.

National Environmental Solutions and Schwichtenber filed for protection in bankruptcy court last year, acording to court records. He could not be reached for comment.

Messages left at Nationwide Recycling and for McCardle in Brookfield were not returned Tuesday.

Spike Shooter gained notoriety in 2007 when a Colorado high school banned the drink after more than a dozens students became ill from drinking it, and 7-11 stores in Colorado then pulled the product. The drink packs 300 milligrams of caffeine, and other ingredients, into an 8 ounce can, more than three times as much as a can of Red Bull.

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